Emma Thompson has expressed strong irritation towards artificial intelligence tools that attempt to alter her writing, saying she becomes “intensely” annoyed when offered assistance by AI. The British actress and screenwriter, who won an Oscar for her 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, discussed her concerns about the technology during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. When asked about the “coming AI revolution”, she replied that she felt “intense irritation”, explaining that she prefers to write her scripts by hand as she believes in a direct connection between “the brain and the hand”.
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Thompson said that once she transfers her handwritten work into a Word document, she is frustrated by AI suggestions to rewrite her material. She described her reaction to the intrusive prompts in strong terms, saying she does not need a programme to rework what she has already written and finds the repeated offers aggravating. Colbert jokingly suggested she should show her Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar to her computer, but Thompson noted that artificial intelligence “wouldn’t care”.
Reflecting on her relationship with technology more broadly, Thompson added that her frustration with computers predates modern AI. She recalled an incident while working on Sense and Sensibility when her script suddenly transformed into “hieroglyphs”, leaving her without a clear version of the text. In a panic, she travelled to Stephen Fry’s house in her dressing gown, where he spent eight hours attempting to restore the document.
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Although the script was recovered, Thompson said it returned as one long sentence, requiring her to rewrite it. She joked that the computer had “hidden it on purpose”. Despite these challenges, Thompson has continued to enjoy success as both an actress and a screenwriter, with credits including Bridget Jones’s Baby, Last Christmas and the Nanny McPhee films, in addition to her acclaimed work on Sense and Sensibility.
